In order to implement certain types of network services on a large scale, it may be necessary to execute instances of a network service on a large number of host computers (which may be referred to herein as “hosts”). In order to provide this functionality, hosts may be grouped as members of a hostclass. A network service traditionally is deployed to all of the hosts within a hostclass. Additionally, different network services can be co-hosted on the same hosts within the same hostclass. There is, however, an upper limit to the number of services that can be co-hosted on the same host.
Partitioning of host computers in a fleet is one solution for scaling the implementation of a network service. Utilizing partitioning, a new fleet of host computers may be deployed, and new instances of a network service may be deployed to the new fleet. Partitioning, however, may make it difficult to deal with changes in the characteristics of co-hosted services. For example, scaling one service independently of other services that are co-hosted on hosts within the same partition may be difficult or inefficient because scaling typically involves adding host computers to a partition or deploying the same service to multiple partitions.
Other challenges might also exist when implementing certain types of network services in an efficient and scalable manner. For example, it may be difficult in some systems to configure service clients to access a desired network service. In one configuration, for instance, a configuration file that defines the network location of network services is deployed to each service client. The service client can utilize the configuration file to determine the network location of a service to be called. This mechanism, however, may be difficult to maintain as the configuration file must be updated and re-deployed to each service client when changes occur to the deployment of the network services. Other challenges might also exist when configuring service clients for use with network services.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.